The Rainforest Fund Project

Let there be light cafe-service at Settle

2012-01-29T22:41:00.000Z

Four times a year St John's Methodist Church has a "Cafe-style service" The theme of January 2012's service is "Let there be light". Above we are assembling and helping ourselves to sandwiches and cake.

A leader in pink has positioned words round the room -head-sky-traffic-lime-etc. - Later we will have to look for these to match up with the word "light" she has already positioned on the board.

The junior church prepared two banners the previous Sunday - they will brighten up the church.

We had a short amusing drama - with three characters who could not see because they were blindfolded or had dark glasses. They kept crashing into objects and people. Character 4 (brown jumper) had a torch and implored the other people to take off their blindfolds and see. But they didn't. They were quite happy as they were, they did not want to change.

Next was searching for objects in the dark cave. (Click on the arrow)

More on the cave game. There were two teams 5 boys/men against 5 girls/women. A member from each tean had to enter the"cave" and search for a designated object

Posing inside the cave

Singing

Settle Churches CTISAD Barn dance 2012

2012-01-28T23:21:00.000Z

The LOAF Display was put on the wall in time for the Barn dance.

On Sat 20 Jan Churches Together had a barn dance and meal.

This time the dance was just in aid of Churches Together, not half in aid of the rainforest as last year.

However I sold £16.50 worth of cards - See the display on the table.

People did not notice the LOAF posters much either - too busy dancing and eating - but it gave me all the more incentive therefore to draw people's attention to it - and I kept asking if people knew of local products - it really is quite hard to find many.

We danced..

To the music of the piano accordion

Only watch this video if you really want to ..

It will probably make you a bit dizzy ;)

Book your ticket for our next barn dance.

LOAF - Local - Organic - Animal friendly - Fairly traded

2012-01-28T12:37:00.001Z

Use your loaf
Christian Ecology Link have a leaflet and some posters on this topic. I used our new local photoprinter in Settle Iprint to get some A3 posters made and put the display on the church hall notice board.

Locally produced

Organically grown

Animal Friendly

Fairly Traded - note that 27 Feb - 11 March 2012 is Fair Trade Fortnight

The green sheet on the bottom left says Local Products.
I am having difficulty with that.

- Can you write on the notice-board suggestions of Local Products on sale in Settle?
(or add comments in this blog post.)

Local Products.

Lots of people suggested Growing with Grace the local organic greenhouses at Clapham. (They have veggie bags with pick-up points in several towns and villages) - and compost at 3 bags for £10-00)
Settle Creamery uses only milk from the UK. So we can buy Settle Creamery Butter in the local shops.
People who have milk delivered are able to get local milk and eggs... though much is from across the border in Lancashire.
Drake and Macefield have butchers shops at Skipton and Settle. They get their beef from Thorlby, two miles this side of Skipton, their chickens from Patelybridge and their pork from near Grassington.
See http://www.cravencvs.org.uk/dales-local-food-map - you can download the leaflet/map -
Wensleydale cheese for Hawes (20miles)
Goat's cheese from near Horton (7 miles)

Since taking the above photo, I have added an extra green sheet on the left explaining that:-
the extra pictures of loaves (baked at our local cafe/bakery, the Naked Man, Settle) were photographed on location in Winskill Stones Nature Reserve.

The LOAF posters were up in time for the Barn dance. more on the next blog post

On Sat 20 Jan Churches Together had a barn dance and meal.

I look forward to your suggestions of local produce we can buy at Settle

Poa annua - Annual Meadow-grass

2012-01-03T01:05:00.000Z

Poa annua - Settle Railway Station in October 2007

Grass of the Month for Jan 2012

(For more grasses, see Grasses Index )

Poa annua - Annual Meadow-grass was set to be my "joker" or reserve card in this series - It is one of the easiest grasses - because you can find it in flower ANY MONTH of the year!.. And in EVERY PART of the British Isles .. I was going to save it till there were no other grasses in flower to describe..
Well - we are now starting Year Three, and it is January, so I shall use it - You can look at the 24 grasses already described at Grasses Index

Poa annua is a good introduction to the Poas - I plan to present Poas for the next six months (!!!) - that should be very useful for you because they are very common.. bookmark this blog!.

INVITATION-

Go out and look in the paving stones where you live - any small grass in flower now is almost bound to be Poa annua. Easy!

A walk round Settle or most towns and villages will reveal a head poking up between paving stones somewhere!

The walk from Ripon to Fountains Abbey on Boxing Day 2011 revealed - Groundsel, Ivy-leaved toadflax, Red Dead-nettle, White Dead-nettle, Ragwort, and the grasses Cock's-foot and Annual Meadow-grass in flower.

All Poas have blunt boat shaped-tips to their leaves - and the flower heads are like Christmas Tree panicles.

The blades have "tramlines" -
Definition of "tramlines":- Look at the blade from diagonally above - on either side of the midrib there is a groove which looks darker because of shading from the light. These are the tramlines - or maybe it refers to the midrib which sticks up from the centre of the grooves - as the metal bar does in street tramlines.

At the base of the 2 grooves are special cells which can contract under dry conditions (thus causing the blade to fold) and expand under moist or sunny conditions allowing the blade to open and collect more light for photosynthesis. The majority of the stomata (holes where gases move in and out of the blade) are on the upper surface of the blade. Hence water loss can be reduced by the blade folding under dry conditions.

Since all common Poas have boat shaped tips to the blades and tram lines and Christmas-tree flower heads, how do we differentiate Poa annua?

	*Poa annua*	*Poa trivialis*	*Poa pratensis*
blade tip	boat-shaped	boat-shaped	boat-shaped
blades sides	very slightly tapering	tapering	parallel sided
colour of plant	whitish green	bright shiny yellow green	bluish-green
ligule on flowering shoot	big wide white	long	very short
ligule on vegetative shoot	big wide white	very short	very short
rhizomes/ stolons/none	tufted only; shoots grow at diagonal angles	stolons (eventually) vegetative shoots lie flat along ground	rhizomes.

1st Jan 2012 - Poa annua growing
in Allhallowgate Car Park, Ripon

Poa annua does not have rhizomes (as do Poa pratensis, Poa humilis and Poa angustifolia)
Poa annua does not have stolons or shoots that lie flat against the ground as does Poa trivialis

Poa trivialis and Poa pratensis are the most common other Poas. Poa pratensis always has short ligules.
Poa trivialis has long ligules on its flowering stem but short ligules on the vegetative stems.
Poa annua has big white, wide, ligules on all its stems - giving tiny plants a whitish green colour.

The blades of Poa annual can have undulations or crinkles in them which is very characteristic - but these can occasionally be found in other grasses too.

(For more grasses, see Grasses Index )

Fountains Abbey - Boxing Day Pilgrimage 2011

2011-12-30T18:58:00.000Z

This year was the 25th(?) annual pilgrimage on Boxing Day from Ripon Cathedral to Fountains Abbey.

This is the second blog page I have written about the event - See also yesterdays post -

Fountains Abbey Pilgrimage - Fungi, Flowers, Ferns; Feathery and Furry Friends

Today's post deals with:-

Striding-out, Scenery, and Cellarium Song

(Scroll down for a video of the singing in the Abbey)

We haven't tropical forest in the UK but we are grateful

that this Parkland exists -
that the magnesian limestone gives rise to a variety of lime loving plants -
that the National Trust who own the Abbey, and the main landowners between Studley Park and Ripon care for nature conservation now.

There was a service at the Cathedral before the pilgrimage - I arrived too late for that this year, but met the people here, near the Tennis Courts opposite the Spa Hotel in Ripon. On the far right you can see the Bishop (with crook) and Dean.

This path used to pass through the open field. Now a hedge has been planted. The white birch trees in the background have all been planted and grown since the walk started. In the foreground there are dead-heads of knapweed a wildflower - perhaps left so it can seed.

Short halt whilst we let others catch up.

At the end of that path near Stuldey there is a big old Small-Leaved Lime tree - see the suckers - It could have been here even before the Monks founded the Abbey in the Abbey in the 1132

The gatehouse at the entrance of Studley Park - (with the relatively new Studley church a head)

The Gatehouse from the other side - and Ripon Cathedral in the distance

At the entrance to Fountains Abbey Grounds we were allowed in free by the National Trust up till 12 o,clock - though donations welcome.

Another third of a mile - Approaching the Abbey. The blue flag with a white rose in it on the right is the Yorkshire Ridings Flag

The sun came out briefly and lit up Huby's Tower - this was one of the latest parts to be built before the dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539

Inside the cellarium (the long low hall where the grain used to be stored) -
people assembled - It was packed.
There were some loudspeakers outside
and we could look in through the windows

Looking in through a window

Making friends at another window -- and looking in ..

We sang carols - and there was a prayer which included thanking God for the beauty of creation and reminding us to remember our responsibility to look after it.

Here is singing at the Abbey:-

The Bishop of Ripon after the service... and member of congregation drinking the welcome hot punch, (or coffee)

The band

A good view of the Abbey from the River Skell on the way home

Plenty of water today

A view back to the Abbey

More pictures at Fountains Abbey Pilgrimage - Fungi, Flowers, Ferns; Feathery and Furry Friends

Fountains Abbey Pilgrimage - Fungi, Flowers, Ferns; Feathery and Furry Friends

2011-12-30T03:34:00.000Z

(Click for more pictures of the people and the walk and scenery as given in my next posting)

Forced march - Frolic - or - Fungus foray -

Foot it out with us in the Fresh air

Reflect on faith, philosophy and fantastic scenery

with two and four footed furry friends.

2011 is the twenty fifth (ish) pilgrimage from Ripon to Fountains Abbey.

Four miles of mud, greenery, and friendship

to the Abbey, founded by Bendictine (later to become Cistercian) monks in 1132, and dissolved in 1539.

Left: Leaving Ripon,

Right: Passing the ancient Small-Leaved Lime as we approach Studley

Below: Walking in the Studley Park grounds (no deer in sight)

Fungi

Passing Pholiota squarrosa* Scaly-cap

More Pholiota squarrosa* on the other side of the same three

Field Blewit - Lepista saeva* in the grass, amongst beech nut shells

Fungus on Sweet Chestnut tree

Young Velvet-Shank fungus (Flamulina velutipes*) on sweet chestnut tree
This can withstand frost and is edible

This is an Amanita - poisonous, even if the slugs did not think so - with fine white gills, ring and hidden in the beech leaves, a swollen base. This was found near the high western path.

Flowers

Ivy-leaved Toadflax - still in flower on the walls of the Abbey

Ferns

Hart's tongue fern

Feathered Friends

The swans are unperturbed by all the crowds

As are the gulls

And Greylag Geese

The Dogs enjoy the carol service from the outside of the Abbey

And make new friends

Hart's tongue fern

Dogs on and off the walk -
through the avenue of Sweet Chestnut Trees
The younger ones planted fifty years ago after the Big Storm which blew many of the old trees down in 1961

This dog at the footbridge as we returned to the entrance

Look how many breeds we have seen.

...

..................................

Farewell Fountains Abbey. Come with us again next year 2012!

See more pictures of the people and the walk in my next posting

Below: Video of Singing in the Cellarium

Carol Singing in Settle 2011

2011-12-20T23:33:00.004Z

Its 20th December and today Churches Together in Settle and District sang at Settle's two supermarkets.
(See a list of upcoming Carol and Christmas Services in Settle and District 2011)

Carol Singing at Booths

Walking between the two supermarkets at Settle

Carol Singing at the Coop

Carol singing at the Coop

Here's the connection with rainforests and rare habitats:-

One day I will pick up courage and go and ask if I can do a collection at Booths for the Rainforest
At least one in ten food items at both stores contains palm oil (usually labelled hydrogenated fats) - Palm oil plantations cause destruction of the rainforest
Carol singing is a very eco-friendly occupation.
Both the Coop and Booths score relatively highly as eco-friendly superamrkets go.. The coop is big on Fair Trade goods, Booths stocks up with a lot of produce sourced locally in the North West.

Remember that when you buy "Stuff" a vast amount of waste, some of it toxic, has been made and dumped as a by-product of producing the "stuff" -

Money sent to WLT and A Rocha via Big Give

2011-12-11T16:01:00.000Z

A big thank you to all who have supported the Rainforest Fund, Settle over the past year - indeed over the past three years.

I was able to take opportunity of "The Big Give" last week and on the evening of Tuesday 6th I paid in money that has been raised this year... The Big Give had matched funding - so (Thanks to other large donors) the value of the money has been doubled..

£700 to World Land Trust (doubled to £1400 - so will save 14 acres of Rainforest)
and
£500 to A Rocha .. biggive (doubled to £1000) supporting forests, and resarch in forests in Peru, Brazil, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and India.

I was lucky to get through on Tuesday evening.- "The Big Give" was Monday to Friday last week. Lots of charities had encouraged their supporters to donate first thing on Monday at 10am - so of course the system went down on Monday morning. There was only so much matched funding available, after which each day, one could give, but not get the matched funding.

Please keep buying these greetings cards.. and donate and organise other projects to raise money. Once lost the species and habitats are gone - It is up to us to save them now!!.

The People at St John's Church Hartley Wintney, who are collecting money for A Rocha also managed to get their money - £100 - donated on that Tuesday too. Well done!

Ribblehead Station Carol Service 8 Dec 2011

2011-12-11T14:51:00.000Z

We braved the winds, storm force gales and rain for another splendid carol service this year on Thursday 8th December. The train was on time so the passengers heard a verse of "Angels from the realms of glory", before the train from Carlisle whistled off to Settle and Leeds

A quick practice on the platform before the train arrives

I'd like to show the picture on the train but don't want to put it on the internet.

The carol service

Mince pies afterwards in the Station-masters house

I didn't manage to sell any cards in aid of the rainforest this year.. (to crowded inside and windy outside..) but maybe next year..

They collected some money for Save the children - and they are having another carol service at the Hill Inn on Thursday 15th Dec

River Ribble in spate on 8 Dec 2011

2011-12-11T14:49:00.000Z

The high winds and high rain demanded a walk to Stainforth Foss

Looking up to Stainforth Foss Packhorse Bridge ...

... from the foss itself

Common Polypody fern (Polypodium vulgare) beside the Foss

A mile downstream here is the seat near the Paper Mill

Settle Community Christmas Day Lunch and Tea - 25 Dec-2011

2011-12-05T12:04:00.001Z

I am organising this lunch. I am wondering how I can make it a "green" lunch -

Follow LOAF principles (to some extent) - locally sourced, organically friendly, fairly traded, and animal friendly.

Well watch this space!! (or blog)

(And send in ideas!)

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And if you know anyone who lives near Settle who will be by themselves, or just two or three people, or old, or young, who would like to come let me know. Or if you'd like to volunteer to help

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This is some of what it says on the posters I have put up in Settle:

Welcome to:--

· People to come
· Committee to help plan this
· Volunteers to help

This is a follow on Christmas Day Settle Event, held for over ten years in the past at St John’s Church Hall, Settle as either Settle Community Christmas Lunch or as Age Concern Christmas Lunch – we hope Age UK People will come but also people of all ages.

Venue:- Townhead Court

Transport can be arranged for people who need it. (Transport to church beforehand for those who need it could also be arranged.) Start: 12midday for coffee. Finish (as planned so far: but could have later session)- c. 4.30pm after Christmas Cake.

Price: £10 - (Reduced rates for children) (Formerly it was £12 but we have sufficient numbers now to keep it to £10 as on 23 Dec)

For details contact Judith Allinson

A big welcome to people of any age who will be in the Settle/Craven Area of North Yorkshire on 25 December. Please book.

See pics of last year’s lunch at St John's Church Hall

Hartley Wintney raises money for forests - A Rocha - The Big give - World Land Trust

2011-12-04T15:03:00.001Z

St. John's, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, are having an alternative Christmas Card this year to raise money for the rainforest fund.

This Christmas Card Tree was made from an old cardboard box and members of the congregation are invited to write their Christmas message on a "bauble" and stick it on the tree instead of buying individual cards.

Money raised by the 9th of December will be donated on line to A Rocha's tree-planting programme in Ghana which is part of the "Big Give" where signed-up charities receive double the donations between 5th and 9th December. -

See the Arocha International part of the Big Give Website

If Hartely Wintney raises and donates £100 then it will be the fourth church in CEL's 100 churches project .
Another project taking part in the Big give which CEL's 110 churches project encourages people to support is World Land Trust. For £100, WLT can purchase and protect an acre of critically endangered tropical forests and other vital habitats in Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico.

If you would like to donate to either of these - please donate early in the week - early on Monday straight after 10am preferably - as there is only so much matching funding available to double what you give... If you are too late on Monday, try giving early on Tuesday.

100 Churches Project

2011-12-04T14:09:00.001Z

The 100 Churches Project is a campaign run by the national organisation Christian Ecology Link (CEL) in which CEL is encouraging 100 churches to raise at least £100 each for "saving wild habitat" projects.

I paste the details from their website here:-

100 Churches

CEL is seeking 100 churches to raise £100 each for habitat conservation projects

One quarter of the world’s mammals and one fifth of the plants are under threat of extinction

Could your church have a fund raising event?

to save habitat or species

Please tell Christian Ecology Link. We will celebrate the fact by

putting a link to you from the website,
by sending you a certificate and thank you card.

We want to show the world that Christians care about the gifts God has given us – and care that future generations should enjoy them too.

CEL can suggest projects to support. For example a church in Settle is supporting three charities: World Land Trust, Cool Earth and A Rocha Ghana.

If you support a church abroad, why not ask them about conservation projects near them, thus increasing both their and your awareness. Contact Judith Allinson

“Whatsoever is good” – Philippians 4 v.8

Spending £1 to save rainforest from being destroyed can prevent 330kg carbon dioxide being produced that's one third of a ton – a better return on £1 for preventing climate change than any other way

Species extinction rates are now 1000 times as great as the natural rate due to habitat loss

Churches which have raised over £100 so far:

Eco-group at Clun Methodist Church, Shropshire raised over £300
Churches Together in Settle and District
St John's Methodist Church, Settle

Leaf insect

Fundraising - Cards at Langcliffe

2011-12-04T13:51:00.001Z

Would you like to buy some beautiful greetings cards? I held a stall again at Langcliffe Instiute Christmas Coffee Morning on 3rd December 2011. Another £32.50 was raised for the fund. Thank you to all who bought a card.

On the wall behind is the Langcliffe Tapestry. The big soft toy hippopotamus was bought as a cuddly visual aid from a stall nearby.

I have lots of cards left .. and will keep on making them.. Contact me if you would like me to run a stall near you.

Dactylis glomerata - Cocksfoot

2011-12-01T03:40:00.000Z

This is all millimetre graph paper

"A grass a month" has been going two years now.

For December for the 24th grass ...
we''ll have the one everyone knows, the one you've been waiting for:-...

Cock's-foot!

Easy to recognise in-flower
AND
out-of-flower,
and big enough to poke up above the snow should we get any.

To be sung to "Frere Jacque"

Shoot section flying saucer

I'm a cocksfoot,
I'm a cocksfoot
Succulent shootbase
White sticky succulent shootbase
Section flying saucer
Section flying saucer
Big and folded
Big and folded.

There, got it!

In USA it is known as Orchard Grass

Orchardgrass was introduced to the eastern United States from Europe in1760.

The shoots provide good nutrition in spring, but the dead shoots in autumn are not so palatable.

Two shoot sections

The panicle can sometimes show vegetative proliferation

panicle viewed through lens.

Uses: http://cocksfoot.askdefine.com/

Here,s a cocksfootleaf covered in "hawfrost-snow" from last December

Craven Speakers Club and Cards

2011-11-29T09:07:00.001Z

I sold some Greetings cards for the Rainforest Fund and one calendar and took £18 at Craven Speakers Club last night. thank you all who contributed!

Next week there is a fundraising scheme "The Big Give" when money contributed to certain charities will have their money doubled including World Land Trust and A Rocha. - Just from 5-9 December. So I shall put the money in online then.
http://www.thebiggive.org.uk/

These pictures were actually take 2.5 month's ago at the beginning of the season - celebrating Gwendolen and my birthday at coffee break time, and Val had some books on display..

Speakers Club which meets in Skipton on Monday nights is a very friendly group and we really do improve our speaking skills

You are not alone

2011-11-12T23:29:00.001Z

Ever feel like "Just where is life going?"
That's what I felt on Saturday morning 12 November as I dragged myself out of bed.
But by the end of the day I had done so much I thought "I'll make a record of it - at least there will be lots of links"

A RANDOM DAY - BUT ONE - WITH LOTS OF LINKS

1. I check my emails etc (sad isn't it when the first thing you do after waking up is to go straight to the computor..) A girl called Claire has written to CEL Facebook group about the Youth -Climate Justice Caravan to UNFCCC COP17 Climate Negotiations! Nairobi to Durban ..

Lucky her, travelling across Africa!

and what a vital project - raising awareness about climate change amongst the youth of Africa - Yes the ordinary people really since more than half the people are less than 19 years old!!

2. I make some porridge - Sainsbury's. Raspberry flavoured. One sachet plus semi-skimmed milk contains 1/10th one's daily requirement of fibre and almost 1/5th one's requirement of sugar. So I would have to eat 10 sachets to get enough fibre!! and by then I would have had twice as much sugar as I should do. - then would I be running the risk of diabetes? I Oh well, I do not have milk with it, only water. And it contains soya. (Soya as in "They are chopping down the rainforest for soya)

2. Events email. Having been told what an excellent play/musical "1611" is last night by Ken and Angela, I spend most of the morning writing an "Events email" to send to the people on my Settle and Area contacts list. "1611" is a musical about events at the time the King James Bible was written. This takes all morning.

Mycena pura

3. Christmas Day lunch posters. I am going to run a "Settle Community Christmas Day Lunch and Tea" on 25 December - yes I am - similar to the one we held last year. - So I have to make some posters and get them up, to give people time to see it and decide to come.
Last years Christmas cards -cut up - enliven the posters.

Hypnum sp? or Homalothecium lutescens?

4. I go down town to put up the posters. I put one on the board in the church hall schoolroom. I put one in Age UK. I put one in the Tourist Office. I put one in the Coop. I stick one through the door of the doctor's surgery. I fail to put one in Townhead because I cannot find a letterbox. I fume. Well just a little.

Ctenidium molluscum

5. It is a sunny late afternoon - It is a shame to go home. I drive up to Winskill Stones, Plantlife Reserve.

I aim for the high pavement close to the road. I admire the mosses.
And Cladonia.

And Mycena pura. Here is a link to my favorite fungus site - Champimaginatis - this site describes in French but gives the description in English.

I wander back towards the car as the sun is setting - to the south south west over the forest of Bowland - It is only 5 weeks to the shortest day now.

I remember my mother who died just nine weeks ago, and mourn.. even though I know she wouldn't want me to.

Back at home I have two hours before the musical.

The latest issue of "Green Christian" Magazine fell through the letter box this morning, so I read that.
"Great!" - it has given a mention to the 100churches project:- " CEL is seeking 100 churches to raise £100 each for habitat conservation projects" - So far we have three - (1) Us at St John's (2) Churches Together in Settle and (3) Clun. How can we get more?

Nearly everything else in the magazine is about climate change or sustainability - plus two articles that look a bit detailed so I'll try them another time. I wish we had more on the importance saving species and habitats. I wish we still had a green songs page.

I spend half an hour making five new greeting cards and putting several already made ones in cellophane envelopes which makes them look really classy. Last night at the hymn evening four were sold. It all helps.

I had been reading "Liberating the gospels" by John Shelby Spong - Who shows that much of the New Testament is midrashic. Today I looked at three more of Mum's books. Will write more on these if I get any further with them.

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"Get there early to get a good place" I had said to people in my email about the 1611 play. So I set off very early, stopping off to buy reduced price food at the petrol station. Finding bargain food gives the same sort of satisfaction as discovering wild brambles or edible mushrooms. I discover a family sized trifle well reduced.

Sitting in the front seat at Giggleswick church is Maureen Ellis. "I read your email and came" she said! Then next to me came Ruth and Dan B and then Mr Leaky. Ken and Angela are in the similar front seats on the left. Behind are Sally and Keith and their friends. Being at the front I can easily take photos albeit from a low angle.

These pictures are pictures of the cast - the audience of 72 was behind me

In the interval we have coffee and biscuits - I am delighted to see they still have the booklet about Giggleswick churchyard mosses on display - and also a poster for Speakers Club

&
See the ampersand on the flag above the "boat" - The word "and" was used over 4000 times in the New testament/bible (I forget the statistic) and the & was used instead of and to save effort and space. King James wanted & to be used as the 27 letter of the alphabet

There is a song saying that 188 women are mentioned in the bible by name.

The two lead characters are King James and William Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote 7 plays during the time 1604 from when James commissioned the bible to 1611 when it was printed. Then the plays he wrote afterwards included quotes from the King James Bible.

There are masses of fascinating facts - I wish I had a printed copy. They deal with Hudson who sailed to try and discover the NW passage to China.. and gave his name to many landmarks en route until the waters froze. Next spring when the sea melted his men mutinied and returned to England, leaving him in a small boat.

They mention that James had wanted a bible without comments in the margin (as had had the Geneva bible). But they do not explain why he did not want comments.

Songs include:- Old Yorkshire songs, a Leonard Cohen song, Negro Spirituals, By the rivers of Babylon, While Shepherds Watched to On Ilkley Moor, Zadok the priest, ...

What an insight into "1611" life and into a host of music styles afterwards.

--------------------

I come home. I pop in to see Nellie my neighbour. She was watching the Remembrance Day service at the Albert Hall on TV. The members of the forces were marching in - It reminded me of watching it when I was young - with my father.

I have eaten the whole trifle - so much for fibre!!. Checked my emails; put a link to the Africa Climate Change Caravan site. Time for bed. Tomorrow I need to go through this and put in lots of similes and metaphors.
And do the jobs I really should have done today.
Why the title? - You are not alone - well because I saw it on a web site - but I think it is appropriate. Thanks for reading.

Green Pilgrimage to Canterbury 1989

2011-11-09T01:08:00.000Z

The launch of the Green pilgrimages network this week (2 Nov 2011) in Assisi is perhaps a follow up of the pilgrimage to Canterbury 22 years ago...

Green Pilgrimage Network Launches with joy,hope,faith and practical plans (1 Nov 2011) and
Green guide to the Haj (Nov 2nd 2011)

This account of this 1989 pilgrimage (involving BCC, many faiths and WWF) can be read as a follow up to blog post of the 1987 pilgrimage to Winchester.

1989: Plodding beside the river carrying our our pilgrim staffs.. Meeting hop pickers .. Sleeping outside under the stars in the flower rich warm graveyard, to avoid the snores of the other people sleeping inside on the church floor,.. (though we then had faint sound of traffic in the distance) .. memories.

Hop pickers

Banner -
pilgrimage for Earth Survival

In September 1989 WWF organised pilgrimages from three places ending up at Canterbury- from Coventry, from Winchester and from Letchmore Heath: to arrive on the 16th for a weekend of prayer and celebration.

Did I go on the whole fortnight's pilgrimage along the pilgrim way from Coventry to Canterbury?
Rod and Jane Everett did, from Middlewood Trust.

Material outside hop house.

No. (I was working for Nature Conservancy Council then, surveying grasslands in Richmondshire)

But I made my way down to the deep South East and stayed with friends at Tonbridge (or Tonbridge Wells?) and enjoyed walking with the pilgrimage for an evening and a day.

We met some hop pickers. There are very few hops grown in England now.

In order to attend the workshops on the day before day before the pilgrimage itself would arrive, I came early at Canterbury. I wanted to set up a Christian Ecology Group Stall (It was CEG then, not CEL). The British Council of Churches was organising some workshops (History of BCC)

Picture me struggling across the road to a traffic island with a huge black unweildy corrugated plastic Artist's A1 size folder containing large posters from Malham chapel wayside pulpit, and other CEG posters, plus much other luggage and rucksack.

"Donkey's work best heavy laden" a lady's voice cheerfully said,

and a stranger kindly helped me carry it across a busy road. I'll always remember her - and laugh at myself trying to carry too much. Carrying the material was worth it because it made a good display. There was plenty of interest at the stall.

Christian Ecology Group Stall at BCC conference at Canterbury in 1989

(Considering I had not even heard of CEG/CEL at the pilgrimage two years previously, it is interesting to see from the display how much I had been involved with in 1988 and 1989 - but that's another story)

After the workshops I dismantled the banner from the top of the stall and took it to the "Welcome of the pilgrims entering Canterbury"

The pilgrimage arrived on the Saturday afternoon
and people at the conference joined them

Rev Nigel Cooper helped carry the CEG Banner.

There was TV/Press publicity but not for "Care of the Environment" but for a fundamentalist Christian Group who were protesting at Christians associating with other religions or at Christians associating with New Age people . Hey, ho.-

On the Sunday, the service at Canterbury Cathedral went well. Jonathon Porritt was there. (He is now a CEL patron and the main speaker at our next conference

I hope you enjoyed through reading this blog post - sharing in the pilgrimage at Canterbury
And if you DID attend it in 1989 do let me know!

http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/21st-august-1987/3/rich-and-poor

Lichens flourescent in bonfire light

2011-11-07T10:31:00.000Z

Horton in Ribblesdale bonfire is held on the playing field, base for the three Peaks Fell Race, and home of Horton Gala.

The fireworks on bonfire night were set off by two men and lasted a long time with lots and lots of rockets and bangs.

I met some friends from Settle Harriers, and a friend from Malham Tarn Field Centre.

There were Beefburgers, hotdogs, parkin, soup and cinder toffee for sale.

After the fireworks had finished we were allowed to go much closer to the bonfire... and warm up. On the far side of the bonfire the sycamore tree beside the river was lit up by the fire -- but what was lit up was the lichens on the branches -

Maybe I will go back in the daytime but I know the lichens will be: Physcia tenella, Xanthoria parietina and a few Parmelias. The ends of all the branches - this years growth were not lit up because there had not been enough time for lichens to grow on them.

I am not sure how much of it is flourescence or how much reflection - probably both. I did not use flash - just the camera and then adjusting the photo as it came out rather dark initially

Green Pilgrimages

2011-11-03T02:02:00.000Z

Lunch break on the Multifaith Eco-pilgrimage from Petersfield to Winchester in August 1987
(JA in dark green sweatshirt on top of the hill)

Have you ever been on a pilgrimage?

All journeys and holidays can be treated as a pilgrimage - but some events are especially special

It is 25 years ago since the Multifaith Pilgrimmage to Assisi (in WWF's 25th year) when faiths got together to pray for peace but also for the environment. The Duke of Edinburgh was there.

25 years on there has been another big event at Assisi 31 Oct -2 Nov 2011- when with the Duke of Edinburgh the Green Pilgrimages network -has been launched - more of that another time (Radio 4 Sunday of 31 Oct - interview with Martin Palmer - 17 minutes in)

I want to tell you about 1986 and more importantly, the two following years, 1987 and 1989.

I remember hearing about the multifaith event at Assisi in 1986 when I was at Kindrogan Field Centre in Scotland in late summer (teaching grasses - or was it attending a mosses course?) and thinking "Oh, I would have liked to have gone on that" .

It was a year later that I was spending time in Lancaster for their "Green Festival Week". I read about an organisation called Christian Ecology Group (now Link) in the Catholic Cathedral in Lancaster on a noticeboard.

And at that Festival I went to a talk by Martin Palmer held in the University Chaplaincy to which only about 14 people came.. He told us about the upcoming weekend multifaith pilgrimage walking from Petersfield to Winchester -culminating in a service in Winchester Cathedral.

I had been reading a book by Sean McDonagh (To Care for the Earth: Call to a New Theology Aug 1986) - and seen an a colour supplement (? the Observer) in which he suggested that the church ought to have a Green Festival to Care about Creation.

"Ahah, Perhaps this is it!" I thought.

Four of us then arranged to pile into Rod and Jane Everett's car and to drive down to Petersfield to the Multifaith Pilgrimmage - Rod and Jane Everett of Middlewood Trust and another girl. We drove down on the Friday. We walked from Petersfield to Winchester staying on the floor in a church Hall and a Sports pavilion overnight..

Walking and chatting

It was good meeting different people. Walking with someone is a good way to get to know people and to talk and listen about different faiths and concern about the environment. Then move on or drop behind and chat to someone else. One Buddhist monk told me how he was only allowed to have a small 1 bar electric fire (1/2 kw) and only allowed it a certain number of hours per day. or wasit one hour per day?

Ploughed downland

The shapes of the rolling chalk downs were beautiful - but I noticed this because the ground was mostly ploughed up and native grassland gone.

The sun shone. Towards the end of our journey we got our banners out.

Not far from Winchester now

We walked across a footbridge over the motorway and down into Winchester.

Over the motorway

A reception by people of the city welcomed us.

A reception by the people of Winchester city welcomed us. (You can see our Middle Wood Trust banner)

Then supper and bed on mattresses in a sports pavilion.

Next day at the cathedral on the Sunday there were lots more people. A school choir sang the beautiful song "The world is a garden you made" - the first time that I had heard this song by Ann Conlon - and the tune SAMOS by Peter Rose.

(In fact it may have been written for WWF for this event. I have searched for it on Youtube but is is not there yet - after 25 years!!!. Josef Winberger have the copyright - I have the book and music should anyone I know want to borrow it.)

In the cathedral some of the Buddhist nuns meditated, just sat there.

Several Faiths had produced booklets/statements about their faith and religion and about creation stories and some of these were launched at this event.

We returned home, the long drive up north to the Lancashire Yorkshire border..

I wrote off and joined Christian Ecology Link.

------------------------------

And the following year there was a bigger event at Canterbury, involving a (equivalent of CTBI) weekend conference , and a multifaith event. Rod and Jane joined in a fortnight's pilgrimage leading up to the weekend. I just travelled down early and accompanied them for an extra two days before the weekend...

But I'll save description of this 1988 event for another day.

Till then I'll just say I carried a CEL banner and Rev Nigel Cooper came and helped carry it.

------------------------------

Surely a pilgrimage to "Care for our world" and to say "Thank you God" for our world is about the most important pilgrimage there could be!!

See also follow up pilgrimage in 1989 to Canterbury

Elymus caninus - Bearded Couch

2011-11-01T19:12:00.002Z

Elymus caninus 1st Oct 2009

What grass can I choose for November?

Problem solved as I go jogging - usual route - Stainforth - Stainforth Foss, Little Stainforth, Stackhouse and home -

in the twilight, on the road verge just above the Stainforth packhorse bridge I find Elymus caninus - Bearded Couch. I complete the route clutching a flowering shoot/spike.

Other woodland grasses with which one might confuse it include:

Bromopsis ramosa Hairy Brome (But that has long very long hairs on the sheaths, and AURICLES) Ec has no auricles.
Elymus repens Couch Grass (But that has rhizomes and grows in patches, not tufts, and has AURICLES) Ec has no rhizomes, and no auricles- though at first sight it might look as though it has them
Arrhenatherum elatius (But that usually has orange marks at the root shoot junction, and is knobbly at the base of the shoot) Ec in not knobbly at the base of the shoot and has no orange felcks there.

Elymus caninus - 17 May 2009 6.55 am -
note the time - near river Mole
road bridge at foot of Box Hill

It is VERY similar to last month's (Brachypodium sylvaticum or Wood False-brome):-

both grow in woods (and occasionally limestone pavement)
both are tufted and medium big
both have blades that are narrower at the base than at the middle
both have flowerheads that are a spike.
both have some hairs on the leaves..

The Elymus has taller sheaths and then especially the top blade comes off stiffly almost and right angles and then droops

Whereas the Brachypodium is MUCH narrower at the base of the blades, the blades grow up at an angle and then droop.

Elymus sheaths are virtually hairless whereas Brachypodium sheaths and nodes are hairy

Elymus Spikes are fairly stiff and the spilkelets (excluding glumes) are about 1cm long and overlap
Brachypodium spikes droop slightly and the spikelets re about 1.5cm long and overlap only slightly. Sometimes the spikelets are on short (1mm) stalks

Elymus caninus - near road bridge of Mole at
Box Hill 16 May 2010 10.26

21 July 2004 -forget where

The photo above has one shoot of Elymus canuns in the foreground whilst the shoots behind are Brachypodium. It was taken at the viewpoint a th National Trust o fScotlan Centre at Killiecrankie looking down to the river Garry. To the left of the river as we look at it is a railway. The next hoto is of a railway arch, almost directly below these people,

Grasses course students from Kindgrogan -rest overlooking the Garry

Shoot of Elymus caninus.
There is also Elymus caninus shoots behind,
next to the sycamore shrub.

Brachypodium sylvaticum - Wood False-brome

2011-10-29T22:21:00.000+01:00

Wood False-brome

Have you seen Brachypodium sylvaticum in flower this late in the year?

We found Brachypodium sylvaticum - or to use its English name - Wood False Brome - still in flower - well fruit rather - on our Fungus Foray earlier this October at Clapham Woods -

The Woods are on limestone so the soil is basic -you can see Dog's Mercury in the photo too - another plant which likes basic soil.

How can you recognise Brachypodium sylvaticum?

There are lots of features making Wood False-brome easily recognisable

It usually grows in woods (or in base-rich grassland close to woods)
The shoots grow in tufts
The shoots are very slender at the base
The blades are
narrow at the base,
very wide in the middle
and then taper
The blades droop
The blades and sheaths are to some extent hairy
There are NO AURICLES (as in the similar Hairy Brome, which grows with it in woodland habitats)
The tufts can look yellowish in spring
The inflorescence is a drooping spike or raceme - the spikelet stalks are about 1 mm long.

Closer up of the above

"UK government, please keep your green promises"

2011-10-18T16:47:00.000+01:00

Picadilly Gardens 1st October CEL Banner

Christians converged on Manchester on 1st October to send a message to Mr Cameron that the Conservative Party should live up to their green promises. Workshops were organised in three places by Christian Aid, Tearfund and CAFOD in the afternoon. At 5pm there would be a sevice at Manchester Cathedral. then a march and a vigil.

A group of CEL members met before the above meetings.. On the hottest October day for many years, we sat on a bench and shared ideas and discussed:-

Ecocell.. How to get more people to know about it – maybe to offer talks to local churches
100 churches project – to encourage 100 churches to raise £100 for Rainforest and other habitat rescue projects
Activities in Leeds.

Then is was off to the workshops

Christian Aid Introductory Meeting at Central Hall

Keep green pledges, say protesters-
The Methodist Recorder on 13th October reported the event thus:-

A RESPONSE to the Prime Minister is being formulated by leading development and environ-mental NGOs (non-governmental organisations) concerned about the content of Chancellor George Osborne’s speech to the Conservative party conference. NGOs have commended the Government’s ring-fencing of the aid budget, but are now urging them to fulfil their “green agenda” commitments.

The organisations, which include Christian Aid, are raising their concerns that the optimism generated by the Government’s promise to be the “greenest government ever” could be damaged by Mr Osborne’s conference address in which he said, “We are not going to save the planet by putting our companies out of business” and made reference to using a loophole to avoid the responsibilities of the Fourth Carbon Budget to tackle carbon emissions.

Inside Manchester Cathedral

CEL banner in front of Conservative Party Hotel

Candlelit Vigil on Albert Square

CCG Fungus Foray - Clapham Woods

2011-10-15T21:04:00.000+01:00

Wonderful Warm Weather Welcomed Craven Conservation Group on our 2011 Fungus Foray - held today 15th October at Clapham Woods and the field above the track from the woods to the Cave.

Jane Blinkhorn led the group and I assisted. In the evening Jane and I took some of the specimens to Archie McAdam to help with some of the more unusual species.

Bet you wished you'd come now!

Here we are having lunch

But first, at the start - we are given a handout explaining
about gill shape and much more

Yes - We've found some Jelly babies. (about 3cm tall)
They are easily recognisable because the DON'T have gills

Just checking that they have no gills.

Waxcaps in the grassland

A great day for waxcaps - Hygrocybe chlorophana

Hypoxylon fragiforme - Beech Woodwart -
.. or is it the slime Mould "Wolf's Blood - Lycogala epidendrum?"
Growing on a well rotted fallen log are these ball shaped structures.
They are 1cm across and are soft inside.
They start off pink (above)
and then turn dark grey (below)
and are soft in the middle

We examine Honey Fungus

Having found almost ten species of Waxcaps I said
"Shouldn't we be finding some Clavarias?"..
and low and behold we found
Clavaria fumosa - Smoky Spindles

Start 'em young.
.
The white fungus, (that I found in the leaf litter in the deciduous wood)
in the bottom left of the tray turned out to be Hygrophorus eburneus

This has thick decurrent waxcap gills, a slimy cap,
a tapering "root" and a felty appearance at the top of the stipe.

Lunch

Visit Craven Conservation Group's Website to find out about more events

Jane has just emailed with a list of 59 species !!!!!

Once Archie has checked we will send it to the Mid Yorkshire Fungus Group.

Bearing Witness- Manchester 1 Oct 2011

2011-10-05T16:04:00.000+01:00

Christian Aid, Tearfund and CAFOD organised a march and vigil on the eve of the Conservative Party Conference at Manchester on 1st October, to ask the Prime Minister to act on the green promises he had made.. During the afternoon each organisation held workshops. Then we met at 5 pm at the Cathedral. The march stated at 6pm.We organised a "Meet-up" of Christian Ecology Link Members at 11am before the workshop for an hour. It was so hot (due to the Jet stream) that we met outside.

Here are two video clips I took. You can see the CEL banner (white with CEL red written on it) at the centre of the picture below, and it comes in at the middle of the clip.

Here we are walking towards the hotel where the Conservatives are staying.
The marshal with the red tshirt and yellow waistcoat and rucksack walking past is Alex who is a Christian Aid worker in Leeds and Bradford (i.e. covers Our area in the Dales ),

Dormouse at Freeholders Wood

2011-09-28T23:18:00.001+01:00

Have you ever seen a live doormouse?

Here is an Adult Dormouse

I hadn't until this Saturday.

Should I go on the Craven Conservation Group to Aysgarth falls, 30 miles away? Should I? Shouldn't I? Should I Shouldn't I?

Eventually I went and (as on all CCG outings) I was so glad I did.

As well as seeing REAL dormice, I saw two other features of great natural history interest (to be dealt with lower down.. and had nice views of the falls, learned about dormice and enjoyed meeting friends.

Paul Sheehan, YDNPA Ranger for Wensleydale
(centre, beside tree)
explains about coppicing the hazel.

There were actually two groups
- a joint meeting -
CCG and Wharfedale Naturalists

They put out a lot of nesting boxes.
This one turned out to have a mother and four babies in it.
"They may only stay in one nesting box for about
four days, and then move to another" he said

This is a baby dormouse. There would only be
about six weeks left in which it would
have to grow a lot in order to have enough
fat and weight to survive the winter.

Examining a dormouse

And photographing it

Interesting natural history feature number 1: We spotted a huge slug on a stone - pale yellow with long spots. It was a Leopard slug. When I came home I discovered it is one for which the OPAL web-site ask people to send in results.. Must do that when I have time

Leopard Slug

This fence at the upper side of the field
near the Lower falls makes and interesting photo.
T and I climb to the top of the field
on the left because we see a dark green low
growing plant near the summit

Yes it is Rock-rose

Interesting natural history feature number 2:- Pat spots a hazelnut - stuck to a hazel twig - but not growing from it..

Bells ring in my head..

It is Glue fungus.

Here I photograph the twig I brought home - you can see some tiny scraps of litter that are stuck to the twig with this fungus.

Lower Aysgarth Falls

Another picture of the group

Why don't you join us at future CCG Meetings?

Hordeum jubatum - Foxtail Barley

2011-09-27T10:22:00.000+01:00

(See other month's grasses)

Foxtail Barley at the Giggleswick (northern)
turn-off on the Settle Bypass

Foxtail barley is still growing at the north end of Settle bypass, waving its white feather heads in the road edge in the slipstream wind generated by passing lorries.

"Look at the Foxtail Barley!" shout observant botanists as they drive past..

But how many of you have stopped to pick a shoot and run it gently against your neck?

z Z z Z z .....
It is so ticklish

Most of these pictures on this post were taken 25 Sept 2007 at the the northern junction of the Settle bypass. It was still growing there last night (26 Sept 2011), when I took the closeup photo of the leaf at the bottom of this post. The photo of it on the traffic island is from 2007 - It is not on the Island this year.

Foxtail Barley on the traffic island

They tend to cut the verge in late July and then it flowers in August-September.

The BSBI atlas shows it is an introduced plant. I look for it at road junctions and roundabouts on motorways. I once found one plant at Helwith Bridge Quarry- must have got carried there on a lorry wheel.
It used to grow on the A9 near Pitlochry, but I have not seen it recently - though I haven't been there in late summer.

Sweep an inflorescence against your cheek. It is s-s-so ticklish. - or put in a vase to provide enjoyment for months ahead.

And here's a video of the very day I took the photos in 2007 - was it really four years ago?

If you watch the video you'll get a feel for the habitat - near busy roads .. and look out for the Bibby's bus - heading west to Ingleton or off to the Lakes?

What makes a barely a barley?

Barley's have three spikelets which grow together on one side of the stem at a node,

Barley's have three spikelets which grow together on one side of the stem at a node, then three spikelets on the other side of the stem.

If this "mini-branch" is pulled off from a node there are nine long bristles or awns - this is because each spikelet has three awns, and the central spikelet is usually larger than the two side ones.

In each spikelet the upper and lower glumes are the same length and have very long awns, and the lemma has a very long awn.. So each spikelet has three long awns . In Hordeum jubatum only the middle spikelet has a fertile floret with a very long lemma awn. The two spikelets have much smaller lemmas with short awns.

Close up of the above

There are tiny barbs on the side of the awns.
The unit which falls of the grass can stick in an animals fur - which helps dispersal - but apparently can also get into the skin of pets, and the wound can get infected. These units can be called foxtails

The blade is 2.5 mm wide, and a pastel version of green. It has a short ligule. It has very closely packed ribs. It is softly, shortly hairy

Hordeum jubatum leaf- but this was the flag leaf so perhaps the ligule is longer .

We've often had Traffic problems recording Hordeum jubatum
here beside the A9- August 1991 -
Grasses Course at Kindrogan Field Centre

(See other month's grasses)

Holcus mollis - Creeping Soft-grass

2011-08-31T21:34:00.000+01:00

Grass of the Month for August 2011

(See other month's grasses)

Which grass has lower sheaths with red and white/pastel green stripes, and is soft to touch, like wincyette pyjamas?

You might say "Yorkshire Fog"..

Yes but so does Creeping Soft-grass .. and in April so do Soft Brome (Bromus hordeacious) and Barren Brome (Anisantha sterilis).

But in August it is easy to recognise Creeping Soft-grass because it is flowering. Each spikelet should haves a bent awn about 2mm long sticking out of it.
In Yorkshire Fog the awn is shorter and is hooked.

I'll try and find a picture of this soon.

Creeping Soft-grass (left below) has hairy nodes but the stem is HAIRLESS below the node
Yorkshire Fog is hairy on the node and on the sheath AND on the stem below the node

Holcus mollis (above) has nodes that are hairy
and the stem below the node is hairless.
Hence the expression "Molly has hairy knees"
The ligule has only short hairs

Holcus lanatus has hairy nodes
AND THE STEM BELOW THE NODE
is hairy too.
It has long and short hairs on the ligule

Creeping soft-grass has rhizomes and can spread out in a patch over a big area. the other three species just occur as tufts.

Hope to find some pictures soon... well here is one of Yorkshire Fog with its hooked awn

Holcus lanatus has one short hooked awn per spikelet

(See other month's grasses)

Nature Conservation Importance of Bradford Diocese Areae

2011-07-28T10:03:00.006+01:00

Did you know that the Area Covered by the Bradford Diocese has a greater area of "Site of Special Scientific Interest" than nearly every other diocese in Britain?

It is really important for Nature Conservation.

If you have appreciated the view from a mountain top or the bird singing in the park you will appreciate Nature Conservation.

The area covered by the Bradford Diocese includes half of the Yorkshire Dales National Park - (which covers well over one third of the Diocese) and in our area well over one fifth of the YDNP is Site of Special Scientific Interest...

So roughly speaking about one tenth of the Diocese is Site of Special Special Scientific Interest.

We should be very proud of that.

I have got these figures from 2 maps -

Map of Bradford Diocese -
there is a larger version
lower down this posting
with explanation

1. The map of the Bradford Diocese gained from http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1122094/guide.pdf
2. The publication A Biodiversity Audit of Yorkshire and the Humber (1999)

What is special about our habitats? Here are some examples.

We are at the southern limit for many plants in Britain. The high hills and limestone areas in the NW of our diocese have Arctic-Alpine relict species. e.g. Purple saxifrage.

Half the limestone pavement in mainland Britain lies within our diocese.
(Limestone pavement is a European priority habitat)

We have areas of Peat Bog (Peat Bog is European priority habitat -) Some peat-bogs are of more nature conservation value than others - but all store carbon.

We have bluebell woods - bluebells are rare in mainland Europe.

We should be very proud of our wildlife habititats.

It is also a big responsibility - we need to protect what we have for future generations.

A Plantlife survey has shown that over the past 100 to 150 years on average 1 species has been lost every one or two years from most counties.
And sadly this is demonstrated for the two atlases which cover our area.

We need to protect what is left.

I also feel we need to encourage people to develop the skills to recognise the wild plants. Join a wildlife group!

Most biology teachers do no know the names of many wildflowers - so it is up to you to make an effort yourself!

This weekend I will be attending the 150th celebrations of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, - when we will have a special field Meeting at Malham Tarn. The YNU has individual Naturalists as members and it is also an "umbrella" organisation for over 40 different Natural History societies in Yorkshire. It will be wonderful to meet other enthusiasts and experts who can tell me what the lichens growing on the trees are called, what the bugs and hoverflies on the flowers are called. (see Malham Tarn near the centre of the diocese in the Craven Limestone complex SSSI)

Map of Bradford Diocese -

Notes:-
The area at the north is in Cumbria so therefore I have no data from the Yorkshire and Humber Biodiversity forum - but there is lots of SSSI there.

The area to the west is in the forest of Bowland and in Lancashire. there will be a little SSSI there.

Ingleton EcoCongregation + Bishop Nick Baines

2011-07-25T02:55:00.002+01:00

Bishop Nick Baines unveils the EcoCongregation Plaque at Ingleton Parish Church

On Sunday 24th July 2011 Bishop Nick Baines unveiled the Eco-Congregation plaque which has been awarded to Ingleton Parish Church . (See right)

Ingleton is 10 miles from Settle

I attended the service, which was a confirmation and baptism service, and took these pictures afterwards.

Before I describe what they have done to gain the award, and say a little about the church, I'll just remind you and myself some reasons why the environment is important:- (And perhaps the fact that the USA could go "bankrupt" in a few days time might highlight the fact that the statements below can affect us)

One fifth of the the world's plants are under threat of extinction
If all the people in the world used the same resources as we do in the UK we would need three planets
The world population has risen in 12 years from 6 billion in Oct 1999 to 7 billion come Halloween this year
Forests are home to 80% of our land animals and plants
£100 can buy /save an acre of rainforest - (the size of a football pitch or 16 tennis courts)
Soil erosion is taking place much faster than soil formation and threatens to leave the world hungry

OK.
By joining in the Eco-Congregation Award scheme, churches can encourage their congregations and others to take more care of the environment.

So what did they do to gain the award?

They carried out a green audit. As a result of this they carried out many activities. They have plans to make the church better insulated. the proposed modifications to the church will be from reclaimed material where possible. They have a botany project ongoing in the churchyard.

Now my pictures. The church, and Ingleton is scenic, and the vegetation green due to the high rainfall of the area....

At the top of the wooded slope to the north I was excited to discovered this plant:-.. Sand leek. Allium scorodoprasm. (Click on the picture to enlarge). This is quite rare nationally - a man coming up to one of my courses from the south has specifically asked where it can be found so he can look at it. But a look at the BSBI distribution map shows it has its main area is in Yorkshire and the NW of England.

In the church they had put out some environment leaflets and I added a second display box with some more leaflets - including the CEL August 2011 Prayer Guide which had just been emailed out the previous day. I was able to give one to the bishop.

In the service we remembered the grief of the Norwegian people.

For the excellent meal and trifles afterwards we were invited to donate to the Africa drought appeal, thorugh Tear Fund.

The bible readings for the day were the parables... the kingdom of heaven is like.. At the end Jesus said 13:51 "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes.".. and the bishop read this with the "Yes" sounding like the disciples really meant - "er no. "

He referred to the Parable of the Wheat and Tares which had been dealt with a week or two ago. And then the parable of the sower.. The sower did not only sow the seed only in those places where it would have maximum chance of germinating and growing. He threw it out generously. and so we should "throw out the gospel generously.. and leave it up to God to determine where it would germinate and grow..

Growing With Grace Open Day

2011-07-16T23:10:00.001+01:00

Growing with Grace had agreed to put some of the Rainforest Fund Greeting Cards for Sale in their shop.

Today July 16th was their Open Day

Assembling at Growing with Grace

Permaculture magazine

Growing with Grace the Quaker Inspired Community Organic Glasshouses had three guided tours for their Open Day today.

There is a Share Launch (Closing Date end of the month). They have just become a Community Run initiative in order to gain some financial investment so that they can have more workers to grow more food..

and to get the community involved..

Permaculture magazine this month features an article this week - as does the Craven Herald (local paper )

We were shown the forest Garden - a permaculture area.
The guide explained that this year the fruit trees - apricots and peaches had flowered well. They flower in February and March before our natural insect pollinators have built up populations.. The GWG people try and pollinate them with paintbrushes or by shaking the branches. This year a group in Clapham is keeping bees and they brought their hives - and they have had good crops of fruit this year.-

Forest Garden

As we left the glasshouse we met two of the bee keepers.

They had come to put some fresh frames in as the bees had filled up all the available ones with honey combs and honey. This was the first time they had been able to take some honey from this hive. - Last year the hives were new and the bees needed all their honey for winter.

Here are some of their apricots

Apricots for sale in the shop

Quince

Leeks with Apricot tree behind

A new group arrive to be shown round

The green house that has been in use longest has the best and deepest soil. More compost is added each year. The Glasshouses take council green waste to make into compost.

Because they make the branches of the squashes or pumpkins
grow above ground level the fruit will be hanging -
so that it avoids slugs and getting damp on the ground

Volunteers are useful for picking the runner beans
- a nice shady job when it is sunny

A view through an open door reminds us that
we are near the fells of the Forest of Bowland

We were invited to taste the Rocket flowers
- an interesting sharp oily taste
- but the green leaves (seen behind) are really hot.

Handing out the Rocket flowers

Our tour wast filmed ready for a DVD.
Here we are in the compost shed.
Making compost is farming soil microbes.

Beyond the truck of compost is a green funnel - this is where the compost is filtered to remove twigs and plastic. It takes seven weeks to make the compost. It is then bagged and sold 3 bags for £10.

Borage

Young peach

So come and visit the Growing With Grace Glasshouses - on the main road between Settle and Ingleton

Use the bag scheme to order your vegetables. It is open seven days a week over summer, 10.30am-4.30pm Or support their stall on Settle market Place on Tuesdays.

http://www.growingwithgrace.org.uk

Austwick Church Cemetery - a haven for relict hay meadow wildflowers

2011-07-06T01:36:00.005+01:00

Ox-eye Daisy and Knapweed

Austwick Cemetery

Whilst descending through the grey rain and grey fog down Pen y Ghent last week at 7am on the Bishop's walk, Rev Ian Greenhalgh invited me to look at the flowers of Austwick church cemetery.

This visit on the late afternoon of Thursday 30 June 2011 with camera certainly was not grey!!.

Austwick churchyard/cemetery

I was delighted to find a number of "Hay Meadow Indicator Species" - i.e. grassland species that only occur in old unimproved grassland.

I had the privilege of meeting a family tending a grave..

and I had time to think a little about the ecology and management involved..

New flowers

and time to play at taking pictures of beautiful textures in the vegetation and scenery.

The National Park and English Nature used to use a system of Ranking of Hay Meadows and Old "Unimproved" grassland by using a list of "Hay Meadow Indicator" species.

0 species = Reseeded/heavily fertilized grassland

1-4 species = Some interest

5-9 species = Unimproved grassland - worth investigating further

> 10 species = High conservation value.

I have surveyed grassland both inside and outside the National Park, and used this system to compare the fields.

Fields with 10 or more species I would get excited about. And within the top category, I myself would make an extra division - did it have more than 15?

After finding two species of Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla) (apart from the garden one) and Self Heal and Quaking-grass in my first few steps of looking, I realised I should be able to make the "Ten species "target.

Here is what I found:

English Name Latin Name

Bird’s-foot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus

Primrose Primula vulgaris

Downy Oatgrass Helictotrichon pubescens

Field Woodrush Luzula campestris

Glaucous Sedge Carex flacca

Greater Burnet Sanguisorba officinalis

Hairy hawkbit Leontodon hispidus

Ladies Mantle xan. Alchemilla xanthochlora

Lady’s Mantle glab Alchemilla glabra

Lesser Stitchwort Stellaria graminea

Meadow- sweet Filipendula ulmaria

Quaking Grass Briza media

Selfheal Prunella vulgaris

Twaeblade Listera ovata

Water Aven Geum rivale

Yellow Meadow-vetchling Lathyrus pratensis

And growing on the road verge outside were:-

Bistort Persicaria bistorta

Meadow Crane's-bill Geranium pratense

That's 16 species - plus two more growing outside.

Twaeblade (This is a type of orchid)

Twaeblade close-up

Yellow Meadow-vetchling

Bird's-foot Trefoil

Greater Burnet

Self-heal

Self-heal from the side

Self-heal from above

Lady's Mantle

Field Woodrush - the fruit are opening

and shedding their three seeds

Water Aven

Yes 16!

Plus two extra on the road verge outside. (The Bistort and the Meadow Crane's-bill

It is an excellent cemetery.

Britain has lost over 98% of its species rich grassland, mostly in the last 60 years. .. This cemetery is an oasis for the flowers and for the insects that live on them.

Three species not on the above list but which were nice to find are:- Yellow Oat-grass, Knapweed and Foxglove and "Fox and Cubs" (Pilosella aurantiaca)

Knapweed

Fox and Cubs

The people of Austwick are lucky to have such a diversity of wild flowers - which look good with the mixture of mown areas and mown borders and areas where the wild flowers are allowed to flower - And later in the year all most areas I imagine will be mown, otherwise False Oat-grass would take over.

Red Clover, Oxe-eye Daisy,

Rye-grass and Rough Hawkbit

beside gravestone

View from Austwick cemetery

View towards village from the cemetery

Why not visit the churchyard whilst the flowers are out? .. and take some photos too?

Holcus lanatus - Yorkshire Fog

2011-07-01T01:05:00.001+01:00

Grass of the Month for July 2011

(See other month's grasses)

Which grass has lower sheaths with red and white/pastel green stripes, and is soft to touch, like wincyette pyjamas?

Yorkshire Fog!

Pick a shoot and you'll find yourself gently rubbing it as you walk along. It is soft and comforting

The pinky purply haze in haymeadow fields that have not been cut by July is due to Yorkshire fog .

But how do you tell it in spring from the other three common plants which can have red and white shoot bases and are softly downy-
Soft Brome (Bromus hordeacious) Barren Brome (Anisantha sterilis) and Creeping Soft-grass (Holcus mollis)?

Well the first two are annuals and are easily uprooted.. and by May they are flowering.

Holcus mollis (above) has nodes that are hairy
and the stem below the node is hairless.
Hence the expression "Molly has hairy knees"
The ligule has only short hairs

Holcus lanatus has hairy nodes
AND THE STEM BELOW THE NODE
is hairy too.
It has long and short hairs on the ligule

Holcus lanatus (seen here) has
long and short hairs on the ligule.

Holcus lanatus at Austwick church-yard

(See other month's grasses)

Helictotrichon pratense Meadow Oat-grass

2011-06-25T20:03:00.000+01:00

Grass of the Month for June 2011

Tall, stiff and upright, shining in t' sun

Botanist spots it - Oh what fun

On chalk or limestone, to it we'll run

Four awns on t' spikelet, not two or one.

(Can be sung to "Rock a bye Baby", or "I had a little nut tree")

The spikelets are over 1 cm long.

It was formerly called Avenula pratense.

How do you distinguish them from other "Oat-grasses"?

Easy.

Meadow Oat-grass has 4 flowers (and 4 awns) per spikelet (well, between 3 and 6),

Downy Oat-grass has 2 or 3 awns per spikelet.

False Oat-grass has 1 long awn per spikelet.

When not in flower it is equally easy - the upper surface of the blades are very white and have "Better tramlines than the Poas" - i.e. they have two dark grooves running down at the centre of the blade... I must find some picture to put up.. but it's raining rather to hard outside now to go and get a picture.

.It is an indicator of old grassland and disappears if a field is given lots of fertilizer.

(For links to other grasses through 2010 and 2011 see Grasses Page)

Saltaire Ladies, Ladies bedstraw, Clover, Cake and Coincidences

2011-06-23T09:05:00.001+01:00

How is fundraising for the Rainforest Fund going? -

Slowly, but we had a boost today.

And things tie up.. remember me talking about Clover in yesterday's blog? Well you'll see.

Last month, an organiser from a Methodist Shipley and Saltaire Ladies group had phoned me to see if we (St John's) did teas.

Lesley who sometimes organises church teas nobly offered to organise the salad, and we split the profit between the Church and the Rainforest Fund. Win and Maurice helped.

And my job?

"You could get some flowers to put on the table" suggested Lesley.

So early that afternoon off I trotted (sorry, staggered) , up the near vertical hill to Lower Winskill, where I met Tom Lord thistle stubbing. "May I pick a few of your Yellow Rattle please?". I admired his Red Clover. He said it grew best where the Yellow Rattle had got established.

Tom told me he had received such a nice letter from a partially sighted group who had visited his meadows, with their wheelchair accessible new path, for about four hours the previous week. "People need to stay a long time to get enough out of the meadows" he said.

I collected more wildflowers and returned, and placed them in three small vases on the dining table.

The Saltaire Group arrived and were treated to a splendid salad (ham/cheese or tuna) and trifle and cake.

We all admired the flowers including the Red Clover. I said I had got if from Lower Winskill.

Then their minibus driver said "I know Tom Lord, I took a group of partially sighted people up their last week!"

Small world.

After costs, we made £28.87 for the Rainforest Fund and £28.87 for the Church Fund; and the ladies bought £16.50 worth of Greetings cards.

Thanks to all.

Bishop Nick ascends Pen y Ghent

2011-06-21T10:33:00.001+01:00

How should a new Bishop get to know his Diocese?

On foot of course.

Bishop Nick, new bishop of Bradford Diocese took advantage of today 21 June,the longest day of the year to visit many places and started by setting off for the summit of Pen y Ghent at 5am from Horton school.

The forecast (and arrival) of rain did not deter the groups of 17 people who donned waterproofs and set of .. upwards. The walk would be 5.5 miles long and involve climbing from 232 m at Horton to 694 m (2,277ft) at the summit.

John Bavington and Bishop Nick

The final steps of the millstone grit ridge on the
south face of Pen y Ghent

Do we make it to the summit?
Yes we do --

To find a small group has gone ahead and made coffee and flapjacks for us.

Bishop Nick records us on his tape recorder at the top clapping for the coffee

On the way down he spies some sheets of white flowers on the cliff.

"What are they?"

Later we find some by the wallside. It is Mossy Saxifrage! (see the picture at the top of this posting).

Later we find the grass Yorkshire Fog and the important plant Red Clover

We arrive at the main road by 8am ready for Bishop Nick to go to Feizor for breakfast at the excellent cafe there and to do (wet) dry stone walling with the farmers... and many more activities during the day till evening-time in Bradford

Sward - a Drama about Haymeadows

2011-06-20T00:40:00.000+01:00

A play by the theatre company Blaise has been performed in

many local venues in the Yorkshire Dales. there are four actors. Jason a young farmer out spraying thistles meets Jemima a boatny student collecting haymeadow seeds .. and the magically get transported through time from pre-bronze age when everywhere was forested up to the future ..

I went to see it at Hawes two weeks ago. Then on Thursday it would be at Settle. I made a collection of Haymeadow plants so that people could see what the plants are like that the actors talk about - Yellow rattle, Bush vetch, Meadow sweet

"And don't forget the grasses - they're often overlooked" was a key phrase in the play - So I brought in Quaking-grass and Cock's-foot and Yorkshire Fog and Ryegrass.

Here are the hero and heroine looking at the plants

Here they are on the stage

The play was held at the Victoria Hall in Settle. they filmed this performance - so people should be able to obtain copies of the DVD and watch it later.

I made some voting slips and asked people to choose their favourite haymeadow plant.

Wood cranes-bill (above) scored 6 votes followed closely by Quaking-grass with 5 votes.

I took it to the foyer at our church next ready for Sunday service on 19th.. continued in next blog post.

Winskill Open Studio - NYOS

2011-06-12T00:53:00.002+01:00

11-12 June and 18-19 June is North Yorkshire Open Studios - Here is what I found at Lower Winskill Farm above Langcliffe on Saturday 11th June. There are stone carvings by Sarah Smith both inside and outside the buildings. See http://nyos.org.uk/Artist.aspx?id=252 and http://www.sarahsmith.org.uk/
Here is a face contemplating the flowers and view with Ingleborough in the background.

Below a potter is at work.

His coil pots are in the foreground

He has a machine to help him make the coils

Being photographed at work by Stephen

In the buttercup field (now rather red clover and yellow rattle field) is a sculpture looking like a buttercup "seed"

On one side it is polished.

It is made of Persian travertine - and close examination
shows layers of crystals similar to that in the tufa at Goredale.

A demonstration of traditional lime services -
here using different materials for plastering

Photographing the inside of the visitor centre

Meadow buttercup left in doorway

The approach road from the visitor centre

On the approach road

The footpath down to Langcliffe

Margaret Uttley has done a brilliant picture of this view ... but you will have to come to the exhibition to see it.

Helictotrichon pubescens - Downy Oat-grass

2011-05-30T22:56:00.000+01:00

Grass of the Month for May 2011

Downy Oat-grass is one of my favourite grasses

It flowers early in the year, in early May - two weeks before its relative, Meadow Oat-grass
It has big shiny spikelets
It is easy to identify vegetatively because it is one of only two "ordinary" medium/large grasses which have newest leaf folded and have hairy leaves.
The other grass is Bromopsis erecta - but Bromopsis has long tapering points to the blades, whereas Helictotrichon has parallel sided blades with blunt, hooded (boat shaped) tips
Its leaves feel soft and downy
The base of the blade is as wider or wider than the middle of the blade
It grows on base rich soils so can be found with other interesting plants
the vegetative shoots can have red stripes on their shoots a little like Holcus - but Helictotrichon has folded leaves.

The other "ordinary grass" with folded leaves is Upright brome - Bromopsis erecta. Helictotrichon has very blunt leaf tips - shown here - whereas Bromopsis has very gently tapering leaves.

Helictotrichon vegetative leaves have short ligule (shown at top) -but the culm leaves have longer ligules as you go up the stem.

Helictotrichon pubescens has two or three florets per spikelet, hence two or three awns per spikelet.
Helictotrochon pratense has three to six florets per spikelet. This is very helpful except when you find a plant with three florets per spikelet.

(for links to other grasses through 2010 and 2011 see Grasses Page)

Hordelymus europaeus - Wood Barley

2011-05-21T00:26:00.001+01:00

Grass of the Month for April

This is a rare woodland grass. ( BSBI Map )

Hordelymus euroapeaus has vegetative features very similar to Bromopsis ramosa (Hairy Brome) i.e.

Tufted
Grows in basic woods
Hairy - long hairs
Dark green
Blades widest in the middle (as for nearly all woodland grasses)
Big auricles

(These are distinguishable from the other big inland grasses with auricles:- Couch grass - which has rhizomes, and Wall Barley which has very big clasping auricles and the blades are very floppy, and it is an annual)

In the pictures below where there are two grasses, the Hordelymus is on the left of the picture and the Bromopsis on the right.

Vegetave differences include:

Hordelymus has a ligule < 1mm long, Bomopsis usually > 2mm
Hordelymus auricles are more horizontal and clasping, brompsis point more downwards at 45 degrees
The collar edges "pull back2 and stick out more in Hordelymus, perhaps resulting in the more horizontal auricles
The hairs on the Bromopsis blade edge and sheath are very regular and parallel to each other, they are more untidy on the Horelymus
Bromopsis has deep red colour in the basal sheaths, whereas Hordelymus is pale brown.

Hordelymus on left of picture, Bromopsis on right

The short ligule and auricles on Hordelymus europaeus

£1 a day for food

2011-05-07T00:00:00.000+01:00

So how is my living off £1-00 a day for food going?
http://www.livebelowtheline.org.uk/
Here is the food I bought for five days:-

2 500g bag lentils at £1-00 each
1 750g packet quick oat porridge at 95p
1 2.5 kilo packet potatoes at £1-00
portion of butter £0.30
2 tblspoons brown sugar 0.10
portion of salt 0.10
1/20th bottle Cool Earth coffee 0.15
portion of nutmeg 0.10
portion of barbecue flavouring .10
1/2 a fudge bar given to me .15
2 cups of tea given to me friends .10
1 slice white bread given .10
Total: - £5-15 - (but I will have some oats left over and maybe some potatoes)

Good Points:

I find I am saving time by not nipping down to the Coop garage or Booths in the evening to see if there are any bargains for sale.

There is much less washing up than usual.

I abandoned using the nutmeg flavouring for the porridge after the first day - I didn't like it.

The butter and the salt even though in small quantities make the microwaved potatoes delicious.

The barbecue flavouring was good but finished quickly.

I still haven't been out to collect leaves of ground elder to boil.. I really ought to....

I quite enjoy the "homeopathic" coffee - about 8 grains of coffee per mug of hot water.

Bad points:-

I did not wash the lentils as was written on the package the first two days. and although I scrub the potatoes I wonder if there are chemicals left on them - they are not organic. - If I had this diet for four weeks on the go I would wonder if I was getting pesticide chemicals from the food and would be be missing my "Five veg" a day, and wonder about my calcium intake.

Spring Plants

2011-05-06T22:41:00.000+01:00

I went for a walk/jog beside the River Ribble down to the Locks and up to Stainforth Foss. there is some hawthorn coming out below my house, but above it it is still on bud or just about to burst through. In the field over the river the cows have hammered the Ladies Smock but left the vegetation on the steep riverbank and also next to the wood where the white wild garlic is spilling though and growing well in the grass of the field. There is Greater Stitchwort on the bank in the field to the south.

At Stainforth Foss and just south of it there are lots of bluebells in the grass - Maybe the drought is holding up the grass, and the bluebells show better. The water level in the river is ever so low. There are minnows in the river. Children from the caravan club are pond dipping. Town Hall clock grows on the roadside going up from the packhorse bridge.

As I return through the field above the main road towards the Hoffman Kiln I note that the Ash trees are still almost as bare as in winter - the leaves are just beginning to show on some trees - whilst the sycamore is fully out. the black plastic bags of silage which were dumped there about twenty years ago are still there.

There is a laburnum tree in full yellow flower near the exit to the kiln area.

The Royal Wedding - William and Catherine

2011-05-06T22:26:00.000+01:00

Every Newspaper has featured the royal wedding - so here is this blog editor's contribution.

Settle got bedecked ready to have a street party on the Friday- but I would be en route to Box Hill on the wedding day, ready for my Grasses course. Here are two pictures of Settle on the day before.

I caught the 7.30 train from Settle, noting that the Hawthorn was not out in Settle, was coming out in Skipton and going south of Leeds was fully out.

On the tube from Kings Cross to Victoria they announced at the station before Green Park that "Green Park" was closed because it was full so anyone wishing to see the wedding should get out now and go to Embankment. .. my geography and knowledge of London is not good, so I stayed on to Victoria. Here I surfaced and made my way past cordons and police towards Buckingham Palace - well, the back of Buckingham Palace, along with hundreds of others to mill around, knowing there was no way we could get to the front where the royal pair would be going after their service.

A Spanish lady interviewer was being filmed interviewing any group she could find who would speak Spanish so I photographed people photographing the cameraman filming her. People were wearing Catherine and William masks. A young man in shorts with an eastern European accent was selling cake stands that would fold up and go in a box.

Suddenly two horses and a carriage came out of the back gates of the palace with smartly dressed riders, followed by more empty carriages and beautiful horses.

So we were rewarded! we had seen something.

Settle sparkles with blue and red bunting for the wedding.

2011-04-28T17:42:00.000+01:00

Today is very sunny. Settle market place is looking great with the blue red and white union jack bunting out.

More Early Flowering Grasses and Flowers

2011-04-28T17:34:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow I am travelling by train down to Juniper Hall near Box Hill to teach a Grasses Identification Weekend.

So today I went to near the Layby on Bucker (Buck Haw?) Brow to collect some plants to show them - Blue Moor-grass, (in flower of course).

But I was amazed to find Meadow Oat-grass in flower - I had gone to collect vegetative shoots of that because they are "More Poa-like" than the Poas. I found Smooth Meadow-grass in flower and Sheep's Fescue. At the bypass junction the Compressed Meadow-grass was not out, nor the Squirrel-tail Barley nor the Reflexed Saltmarsh grass..

The ground is Oh, so dry.

More First Flowering Times April 27th

2011-04-27T22:19:00.000+01:00

I saw a couple of hawthorn trees on Skipton Bypass out -- then nothing much till Ripon bypass where there were a lot of hawthorn trees in blume. There were wonderful sheets of Red Campions on Skipton bypass. the lilac and Sweet cicily were both fully out at Grassington. At Yarnbury there were lots of yellow mountain pansies and the spring sandwort.

At the summit of the Airton Settle road the wavy hairgrass was almost out but no yet. Two days ago at Malham the hare's-tail cotton-grass was in flower but not with big white cottony heads yet.

Early Flowering Times This Spring

2011-04-26T18:41:00.000+01:00

Around here the day that the trees start to show green (so I tell people) is 17th April and the day that they are fully green is 17th May (or 17th-26th May)

Here, for the records, are notes on what I have seen in flowers and in leaf. Many plants are three weeks ahead of what we had last year.

This year by the 17th April the trees were definitely just starting to go green - maybe I should have looked harder on the 15th April. I will put in some photos that I took then, later.

But by 24th April the sycamore trees were almost fully out (though still light green). A view towards sycamore trees looked almost like mid summer. But a view towards ash and oak still looked like winter!

Today at the Ash and Oak tree next to Miss Hilary's cottage (Sandhills) the oak tree was definitely coming into leaf whilst the ash was still only flowering. (So we are going to get dry weather)

By 24th April the lilac was just coming out, and horse-chestnut were in full bloom as are apple trees and bird cherry. Usually they don't come out till May

The beech and birch are half way out.

On Sun 24th I went to look at the Spring Cinquefoil which is fully out and doing well on the limestone grassland - though the grassland looks very dry. The Tormentil is not yet out. I have pictures from mid May last year of us looking at the Spring Cinquefoil. There was lots of cowslips out but I did not notice Early purple orchids

The Purple Saxifrage was out in mid-March this year on Pen y Ghent (I am told). By 9th April it was certainly over, as I noticed on the BBS moss trip.

The Yellow Mountain-pansies are out, and Violets (Viola riviniana), in a field above Stainforth.

I noticed some Cuckoo flower out in the Middle school Playing field on our Lichens Day.. very early. there has been a lot since then in the field opposite me - two weeks ago - presumably no grazing.

Early Scurvy grass (Cochlearia danica) has been out for over a month but there is lots of it now. It is spreading along the road on the road path opposite the ex-Youth Hostel (where is has been for several years) to the path at almost to Stainforth Car Park (where I have not seen it before.)

Today 26 April I have seen Mountain Aven in flower, (and one Tormentil flower), lots of Bird's-eye Primrose, Primroses and Cowslips and Pyrenean Scurvey grass.

At Malham Tarn Lawn there were lots of Early Purple Orchids. the Marsh Valerian and Bog bean were in bud but not quite out. the Globe flowers were just coming out (I usually tell people mid-May for these).

The road verges have Sweet Cicely coming out. There are also a few plants of Cow Parsley which are just coming out but not as obvious as the former. The Sloe is going over. Apple blossom and Cherry and Bird cherry is out. Red Campion is out.

Fibrous Tussock-sedge is in flower as is Spring Sedge, and several other sedges the flowers are emerging. The Brown sedge was not in flower.

On the Fen there was Cuckoo -flower but no Greater Bittercress yet. It was easy to see the fen mosses as the sedges and other fen plants are not too dense. We heard Willow Warbler and saw Swallows. But not Sedge warbler or Reed bunding - but we did not go everywhere on the fen. On the tarn we saw two Greylag geese and a Canada- goose. We watched pondskaters on the pools pounce after insects that landed. The Cranberry was in bud. The Marsh Violet was in full flower on tussocks in the fen. Goldilocks was just coming out.

There were lots of Water Crowfoot leaves but no flowers in the side stream that flows into the inflow stream.

In the afternoon I drove to Airedale and noticed one hawthorn tree in flower and one in bud. That's all. In general Hawthorn is not in flower.

The weather has gone cold today so maybe it will hold things up, and let us stay in this delicious "Just coming out stage" for a while longer.

I have seen Meadow Foxtail flowers for about two weeks - but not noticed any other grasses yet (apart from Blue Moor-grass of course.

I stopped at the garden centre with my neighbour but she said "I never buy plants till the end of May - there is lots of time for frost yet!" So we just enjoyed looking. We had a rain shower for half an hour - that is not enough to replenish the water in the ground!

The Daffodils by the roadside are mostly dead, thought there are still a few white Narcissus type ones left.

Dandelions have been lining the road verges for about two weeks now.

Wood Anemones have been out for three weeks. I noticed a few Bluebells at Bolton Abbey Woods on 12 April - I do not expect to see them till May. The Lily of the Valley in my garden box is just coming out.

Well that's enough notes for now.

£1 a day for food for 5 days - Live Below the Line Challenge

2011-04-23T23:57:00.001+01:00

Could you live off just £1 a day for five days?

Join the livebelowtheline challenge - 2-6 May (Find out more)

Become aware of how much we consume unnecessarily - and how difficult it is for poor people to survive on £1-00

I am going to join the challenge.

I shall donate the money I save from not spending more on food to the Rainforest Fund.

And I shall get sponsored for Methodist Relief and Development Fund which does support some ecologically orientated projects. Would you like to sponsor me?- Just click here

Would you like to take part? There are a variety of partner charities you can support - Christian Aid, Salvation Army,

Just think, nearly a quarter of the people in the world have to survive off less than £1-00 a day - and that's for everything, not just food.

I first read about this project when I heard that Alison Tomlin, President of Methodist conference is taking part. Read more

The Rainforest Fund Project

Let there be light cafe-service at Settle

Settle Churches CTISAD Barn dance 2012

LOAF - Local - Organic - Animal friendly - Fairly traded

Top Twelve Tips for Successful Publicity Posters for Speakers Clubs

1. Make sure the title has ONLY ONE (to Four) key words and print the

2. Use small case letters not capitals -

3. Make additional small posters:- four per sheet -

4. The lead in time is long -

5. Include the dates of several meetings:- this gives a longer shelf life -

6. Add a contact telephone number and website address

7. I list our neighbouring speakers clubs at the bottom of the poster.

8. Fulfill people's needs

9. Add something cheerful

10. Top Locations:-

11. Remember other ideas important for any printed publication:-

12. Encourage members of your club to put up the posters - most important!!

Poa annua - Annual Meadow-grass

Fountains Abbey - Boxing Day Pilgrimage 2011

Fountains Abbey Pilgrimage - Fungi, Flowers, Ferns; Feathery and Furry Friends

Carol Singing in Settle 2011

Money sent to WLT and A Rocha via Big Give

Ribblehead Station Carol Service 8 Dec 2011

River Ribble in spate on 8 Dec 2011

Settle Community Christmas Day Lunch and Tea - 25 Dec-2011

Hartley Wintney raises money for forests - A Rocha - The Big give - World Land Trust

100 Churches Project

100 Churches

Fundraising - Cards at Langcliffe

Dactylis glomerata - Cocksfoot

Craven Speakers Club and Cards

You are not alone

Green Pilgrimage to Canterbury 1989

Lichens flourescent in bonfire light

Green Pilgrimages

Elymus caninus - Bearded Couch

Brachypodium sylvaticum - Wood False-brome

"UK government, please keep your green promises"

CCG Fungus Foray - Clapham Woods

Bearing Witness- Manchester 1 Oct 2011

Dormouse at Freeholders Wood

Hordeum jubatum - Foxtail Barley

Holcus mollis - Creeping Soft-grass

Nature Conservation Importance of Bradford Diocese Areae

Ingleton EcoCongregation + Bishop Nick Baines

Growing With Grace Open Day

Austwick Church Cemetery - a haven for relict hay meadow wildflowers

Holcus lanatus - Yorkshire Fog

Helictotrichon pratense Meadow Oat-grass

Saltaire Ladies, Ladies bedstraw, Clover, Cake and Coincidences

Bishop Nick ascends Pen y Ghent

Sward - a Drama about Haymeadows

Winskill Open Studio - NYOS

Helictotrichon pubescens - Downy Oat-grass

Hordelymus europaeus - Wood Barley

£1 a day for food

Spring Plants

The Royal Wedding - William and Catherine

Settle sparkles with blue and red bunting for the wedding.

More Early Flowering Grasses and Flowers

More First Flowering Times April 27th

Early Flowering Times This Spring

£1 a day for food for 5 days - Live Below the Line Challenge